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M.L. Stedman‘s tale of love and loss comes to life on the big screen this week with director Derek Cianfrance‘s The Light Between Oceans. The Blue Valentine and Place Beyond the Pines writer/director adapted the screenplay from Stedman’s bestselling novel following a couple off the coast of Western Australia who, after suffering a miscarriage, discover a baby floating in small boat off the shore and raise the child as their own. Years later the truth surrounding their daughter’s real family begin to surface, causing a dramatic and emotional conflict for all parties involved. Oscar winners Michael Fassbender (The Counselor, Macbeth), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl), and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Fountain) all are leading the cast, and rumors are already spreading about Vikander and Weisz receiving possible Oscar-nominations. The trailer is available here on MADE. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend!

After nine years away, Jason Bourne is returning to the big screen in the fifth installment in the Bourne series. The new film is simply titled Jason Bourne and reunites original lead Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, The Departed) with Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips). Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You, Silver Linings Playbook) is also rejoining the cast as CIA operative Nicky Parsons. She and Damon will be joined on screen by an all-star cast, including Oscar winners Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive, No Country For Old Men). Actors Riz Ahmed (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Nightcrawler), Ato Essandoh (Blood Diamond, Django Unchained), and Scott Sheperd (Side Effects, Bridge of Spies) are also starring in the new adventure that seeks to uncover the true history behind Bourne’s (aka David Webb) mysterious past. Continue reading →

Same-subject movies coming out at the same time aren’t necessarily unheard of; Deep Impact and Armageddon (May and July, 1998), Dante’s Peak and Volcano (February and April 1997), Mission to Mars and Red Planet (March and November 2000), The Illusionist and The Prestige (August and October 2006). Now a new pair of movies will be joining the list, focused around the life of famous murder-mystery author Agatha Christie. Paramount has signed Oscar-nominee Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man, Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) to star as Christie during her 11 day disappearance in 1926. Sony, however, has signed Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl) to star in Sony’s production, which focuses on the author’s youthful days as a pro-feminist supporter. Continue reading →

A new trailer has just been released for an upcoming drama from writer/director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) called The Light Between Oceans, based on the bestselling novel by M.L. Stedman. Critically-acclaimed actors Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave, Macbeth), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl), and Rachel Weisz (The Foundtain, The Bourne Legacy) lead the cast in the story about a lighthouse keeper and his wife living on the coast of Western Australia who rescue a baby adrift in a rowboat, and raise the child as their own. As the years pass, however, the keeper comes to discover the child’s real mother, and an emotional conflict ensues. The film is so far scheduled to be hit theaters on September 2nd. Check out the trailer here on MADE. Enjoy!

Sunday night saw a decent amount of new movie trailers played during the 50th celebration of America’s favorite athletic pastime, the Super Bowl. One of these new trailers was a new preview for the upcoming Jason Bourne installment that will reunite director Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips) with original actor Matt Damon (The Departed, The Martian) in what will simply be titled Jason Bourne. The two will share writing credits with screenwriter Christopher Rouse (The Italian Job, Greenzone), who has also worked on The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Also returning from the original film series is actress Julia Stiles (The Omen, Silver Linings Playbook), who is joined by newcomers Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man from UNCLE), Tommy Lee Jones (No Country For Old Men, Lincoln), Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s Twelve, Black Swan), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler, Star Wars: Rogue One), and Ato Essandoh (Blood Diamond, Django Unchained). No details are yet available on the plot, except that Tommy Lee Jones plays the new CIA station chief attempting to track down Jason Bourne, who disappeared at the conclusion of The Bourne Ultimatum. The movie is expected in theaters on July 29th. Check out the new trailer here on MADE.

After months and months of anticipation, fans can finally rejoice! As of today, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is now playing in theaters nationwide, and if you haven’t already secured a ticket, you might have to wait at least a week or two before braving the storm of people waiting in line out the door. Director JJ Abrams (Mission Impossible 3, Super 8) took leave of his Star Trek obligations in order to direct the film, which reunites original stars Mark Hamill (Commander Hamilton, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Harrison Ford (Blade Runner, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc), and Carrie Fisher (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, The Blues Brothers) with an all new generation of actors, led by Daisy Ridley (Blue Season, Scrawl), John Boyega (Junkhearts, Imperial Dreams), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, A Most Violent Year), Domhnall Gleeson (Unbroken, Ex Machina), Adam Driver (While We’re Young, This Is Where I Leave You), and Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey). The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi Oscar-winning screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist) worked on the new project’s script with director Abrams and fellow Oscar-winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), about a new threat to peace and justice in the galaxy that occurs 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi concluded. Little more needs be said; all I ask is that you not be an asshole and spoil the plot for everybody in ear-shot of your conversations! Enjoy.

A new “dramedy” titled Burnt from director John Wells (August: Osage County, Shameless) is opening for audiences in New York City and Los Angeles today, with a nationwide expansion expected in the next few weeks. The film comes from a film adaptation of a story by Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts, Iron Sky) by screenwriter Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Locke), centering around a chef who, after ruining his career with drugs and eccentric behavior, returns to London in an attempt to make a comeback by opening a restaurant capable of receiving three Michelin stars. Actor Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) stars as chef Adam Jones, with actors Sienna Miller (American Sniper, Foxcatcher), Daniel Bruhl (Inglorious Basterds, Rush), Ricardo Scamarcio (My Brother is an Only Child, Loose Cannons), Omar Sy (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World), Emma Thompson (Love Actually, Saving Mr. Banks), Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol. 1), and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man From UNCLE). The film is expected to be a semi-biographical story based around the life of Gordon Ramsey (Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Knightmares). The trailer is available here on MADE. Look for the nationwide expansion to your area in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy the weekend!

With the release date for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens drawing ever nearer, fans and movie-buffs alike are jumping for joy with the release of the new full-length trailer. Written by director J.J. Abrams (Armageddon, Super 8) and Oscar-winning screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) and Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), the film picks up 30 years after the fall of the Galactic Empire in Return of the Jedi (1983) and finds the heros of the Rebellion facing a new evil that has risen again. Starring in the film are original Star Wars actors Mark Hamill (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Kingsman: The Secret Service), Carrie Fisher (The Blues Brothers, When Harry Met Sally), Harrison Ford (Blade Runner, The Temple of Doom), Peter Mayhew (A New Hope, Revenge of the Sith) as Chewbacca, Kenny Baker (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones) as R2D2, and Anthony Daniels (Droids, I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle) as C-3P0, who will be joining a new generation of actors including Domhnall Gleeson (Unbroken, Ex Machina), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, A Most Violent Year), Gwendoline Christie (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay), Daisy Ridley (Blue Season, Scrawl), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Adam Driver (What If, This Is Where I Leave You), and John Boyega (Junkhearts, Imperial Dreams). The movie is due out in theaters this December 18th. Enjoy the new trailer!

It seems that Westerns are continuing to make a comeback to big screen productions. The last decade has seen titles like 3:10 to Yuma, The Lone Ranger, True Grit, No Country For Old Men, Django Unchained, and Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Christmas release The Hateful Eight bring in big hauls at the box office, and now 3x Oscar-winning writer and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel, Birdman) will be releasing his latest feature this January. The film is titled The Revenant and is based on the novel by Michael Punke about real-life frontiersman Hugh Glass, who was abandoned and left for dead by members of his own team after being mauled by a bear, and set out on a mission of survival and vengeance across the uncharted American wilderness during the 1820s. Starring in the lead role is Oscar-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Wolf of Wall Street), with Tom Hardy (Lawless, Mad Max: Fury Road), Will Poulter (We’re The Millers, The Maze Runner), and Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, Unbroken) making up the supporting cast. A new trailer is now available here on MADE. The film will see a limited theatrical release this Christmas Day, with a nationwide extension supposedly happening in January. Given the cast and the writer/director behind the project, I think this will probably be one of the year’s best releases, so mark this one down on your Must-See list.

Actor and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney is best known for the acclaimed The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy and studied theater at Chicago’s DePaul University.

Writer/director Barry Jenkins (Medicine For Melancholy, Futurestates) will begin filming his own adaptation of the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney in Miami this fall. Simply titled Moonlight, the film follows a young man, Chiron, in 1980s Miami during the War on Drugs at three important moments in his life as he deals with a rough home-life and his developing sexuality. Additional casting for the film is currently underway and Indie film production company A24, which is also behind this year’s Ex Machina and Amy, will be teaming up with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Productions to finance the project. Adele Romanski (Bad Milo, War Story) will also serve as the film’s producer. This will be the second major production for director Jenkins, whose Medicine For Melancholy received much critical praise in 2008 when it was first seen at the SXSW Film Festival in 2008. Actor and playwright Terell Alvin McCraney was born in Miami, Florida in 1980 and attended the Theater School at Chicago’s DePaul University, graduating with a BFA in acting and receiving the Sarah Siddons Award in 2003. We’ll keep an eye out for additional news.